Steady as a Rock
by Arayal
Summary: Meryl gets shot. Vash threatens a doctor. .... My Reality...


I guess you could call this A/U but it really isn't. I'm going to discard my knowledge of the series after 'Little Arcadia' and pick it up after that episode. So it's kind of more like... an M/R- My Reality, which isn't reality at all. If you don't like stories like that then well.... don't let the disclaimer hit you on the way out ;3.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Vash, Meryl, Milly, Wolfwood, Knives, Legato, or Trigun. The ownership of the afore mentioned belongs solely to... um... the, uh... PEOPLE WHO OWN IT! Yeah, that's it.   
  
Steady as a Rock  
  
*~~Vash~~*  
  
Vash should have found a place to escape to. He could have if he hadn't had two pain in the necks who insisted on keeping to his heels as they ran away from an armed money hungry mob. So now he didn't only have himself to worry about getting to safety- he had a couple of insurance girls too. If it had been only him he would have jumped into a garbage can somewhere.  
  
But *no*. It was their *job*. Bleh! Now he had to find a bigger hiding place. Every few minutes they'd fire a few shots back at the stampede(he he, no pun intended) of people, never breaking speed. He wondered a bit how they did that.   
  
A new barage of bullets flew by, the previous miraculously missing them. He heard a hiss from behind him and guessed they hadn't been as lucky this time, but when he looked back neither had slowed down.   
  
He veered into an alley and before he could proccess information he was opening a door and pulling the surprised girls in and quietly shutting the door. He heard the people storm by as he hoped and sagged against the door in relief. Safe!  
  
He looked around then, but couldn't see much. They appeared to be in a pitch black warehouse or abandoned building. A beam of light pierced the darkness as he was thinking, and he grinned a little. Always count on the small girl too be prepared. It glanced off a light switch and he tried it out. Light flooded the large room and he could see it was, indeed, a warehouse.  
  
"Oh! Sempai, I had no idea it was that bad!" the big girl cried out in horror.  
  
Vash snapped around and the color immediately drained from his face.  
  
"I'm fine" Small Girl denied weakly, even as she collapsed onto a convenient chair.  
  
She was lying. Blood was soaking her left side in an ever widening area even though she had a hand firmly clamped over where he guessed the wound was. She was already pale and faint from the blood loss.  
  
Vash pulled the big girl and her worried blubbering to the side and quietly asked her to sneak out and get some medical supplies. She reluctantly agreed. When she left, he knelt down in front of the small girl so he could look her in the eye. "Let me see it."  
  
"No, it's fine. Just a flesh wound, it's nothing" she tried for a reassuring smile but fell miserably short. It didn't help that she was grimacing in pain.  
  
"C'mon. I need to see it so we can get it taken care of." he kept talking to her in a soothing voice as he gently pried her weakening hand away. By that time she was mostly unconscious from anemia. He pulled her blouse from the skirt and and hissed when he got a good look at the entry wound still bleeding heavily. There was no exit, which meant the bullet was lodged somewhere inside her. Which was bad because he had no idea if that might be in some vital organ.  
  
But first things first. Vash had to get her prone. "How is it?"  
  
She asked in a scared little voice.  
  
"Ahh, its fine. You'll be up in a jiffy!" He said with a too bright smile.  
  
She squinted at him through rapidly closing eyes. "Liar" she sighed and then went limp and fell into his arms. Alarmed, Vash felt for a pulse and found a faint one at her throat.   
  
"C'mon, Come ON! Don't do this!" Vash discarded his coat and spread it on the floor, then laid the small girl on it. He tore off her mantle and blouse and tried to dam the blood flow with his hand. If she lost much more she wouldn't make it.  
  
"Small Girl! Small girl, can you hear me?" he wracked his brain for her name. Mary? Myrtle? Meryl? Yes, that was it, Meryl. "Meryl, can you hear me? Meryl?!"   
  
She shifted and cracked one eye open. "That's... the first... time you've said... my name." then she slipped into unconsciousness once again.  
  
"Wait! Don't go yet! You have to stay conscious."  
  
The door opened and the big girl came in, medicinal supplies and flustered doctor in tow. Doctor?!  
  
"Wha-?" he tried to ask in his stupor.  
  
"Mister Vash, I passed by the hospital on my way to get the stuff and I figured that a doctor would be better than anything I could scare up so I snagged one that was coming out and I brought him here, and I'm very sorry Mister Doctor sir but my friend is in really bad shape and I needed you and-" she took a moment to take a deep breath. "Please help her." she finished with her hands clasped at her chest and tears sparkling in her crystaline blue eyes.  
  
The doctor didn't seem to know what to say. "Ah, of... course I'll help your friend, but uh, what happened? Wait. DID YOU SAY VASH? AS IN VASH THE STAMPEDE? Gahh! I'm gonna die!" he started freaking out.  
  
Vash sighed in irritation. Then he dove in. "Yes, I will kill you if you don't take care of my friend. Get over here and see to her now!" He imagined he looked quite comical, kneeling there with one hand on a gunshot wound and the other on his hip trying to keep an *intimidating* expression on his face. Desperate times call for desperate measures.  
  
"Y-y-yes, Mister Vash the Stampede sir, a-anything you want." The young doctor stuttered nervously. He scrambled over to Vash so he removed his hand and moved to the small girl's other side and clasped her hand. When the doctor saw the wound he whistled. "Wow, this little lady got a rib full of lead. The wound is ugly, but not fatal in itself, it's the blood loss we need to worry about." The doctor had apparently forgotten who's company he was in and slipped into comfortable professionalism. Vash was relieved- he hated pretending he really was the big bad Stampede.  
  
The doctor poked and prodded at her side, feeling for God knows what. Small Girl's hand tightened on Vash's testifying that even though she was unconscious she wasn't indifferent to pain. Then the doctor took a large piece of gauze and a roll of medical tape. He placed the gauze and rolled the tape aroundher torso. In a moment blood was already showing through the layers.  
  
"Dammit" the doctor swore. "It should have slowed down by now. We have to get her to a hospital right away. I think she's bleeding internally."  
  
In seconds Vash was on his feet, Small Girl firmly ensconsed in his arms. "Then let's go" he replied. He was gone in less than no time.He only hoped it wasn't too late. 


End file.
